JULY INTERLUDE

Kathleen Crawford

Chair, Placer County Democratic Central Committee

Interlude is defined as an intervening time period or a pause between the acts of a play. July is our short interlude between the June 7 Primary and the November 8 General Election.

What did the Primary Election reveal about the 2022 Mid-term Election Cycle? Was there good or bad news about the fate of our endorsed candidates? What about turnout? What does this foreshadow about the November 8 General Election outcomes? What can we do to elect our endorsed candidates?

Congratulations to Kermit Jones, Paula Villescaz, Rebecca Chenoweth and Scott Alvord!

Here is my personal assessment of the June 7 Primary based on the Placer County Office of Elections statistics as of June 17, 2022. Placer County voter turnout was abysmally low at 25.53% of eligible voters. This was also played out statewide with very low voter turnout. The local endorsed candidates include Congressional District 3 (CD3), Senate District 6 (SD6), Assembly District 5 (AD5) and Placer Board of Supervisors District 2 (BOS#2). Our CADEM endorsed statewide officers are all in the top 2 election slots for November 8 except for Braden Murphy for the Board of Equalization.

The good news is that all our local endorsed candidates made it into the top 2 for the November 8 General Election. The results varied greatly with many voters skipping over some races. Here is the run down:

  • CD3 Kevin Kiley had 41% and Kermit Jones had 38% of the vote in Placer County. There were 68,917 votes cast in this race in Placer County. Considering that Kiley’s Assembly District represents most Placer voters giving Kiley a significant advantage in name recognition, Kermit Jones had a very good competitive showing. When reviewing the congressional district wide vote, Kermit Jones was the top vote with 42%! Kiley had 33.4% district wide. The total of votes for the 2 Democrats on the ballot was 39,544 and the 2 Republican candidates had 39,987. This looks to be an extremely competitive race that Kermit Jones could win with a strong Democratic turnout.

  • SD6 Paula Villescaz had 41.46% and Roger Niello had 42.68% of the vote in Placer County. There were 55,972 votes cast in this race in Placer County. The SD6 results district wide flipped with Villescaz receiving 45.5% and Niello receiving 41.6%. There was only one Democratic candidate and Villescaz received 76,559 votes and the 2 Republican candidates totaled 91,666 votes. This will be hotly contested since both Villescaz and Niello have local government experience and good name recognition.

  • AD5 Rebecca Chenoweth had 42.27% and Joe Patterson had 36.84% vote in Placer County. There were 61,229 votes cast in Placer County in this race. AD5 district wide results show Chenoweth with 39% to Patterson’s 36%. Chenoweth had 41,647 votes cast as the sole Democrat but there were 3 Republicans with Patterson receiving 37,775 votes out of the total vote cast of 104,706. This district has a distinct Republican voter registration advantage and will be quite a challenge for Chenoweth to win the November 8 General Election. The bright spot is that Patterson does not have good name recognition as a Rocklin city council member across both El Dorado and Placer counties.

  • BOS#2 Shanti Landon had 44.24% to Scott Alvord’s 31.38% of the vote. There were 14, 259 votes cast in District 2. To turn this into a Democratic win will take increased grassroots work in this newly created district which includes West Roseville, the city of Lincoln and the unincorporated areas of Placer County outside of Roseville and Lincoln.

All in all, our endorsed candidates did well and have a good shot at election success in November. As you can see from the results, it will take continued grassroots efforts, sufficient financial resources for each campaign AND significantly better Democratic turn out!

This success is built on the continuing efforts underway to turn Placer County Blue!

Our interlude will end in mid-July as we gear up to implement plans for the coordinated efforts to take each of our endorsed candidates to first place in November. Watch for opportunities to volunteer through the Community Engagement Standing Committee activities led by Barbara Smith and her team. There is plenty of work to be done and YOU are needed to accomplish success.